bothbarrels | Sanctum IC Contact

"Oh, sure." She saves her work and stows the stylus. The frame's light enough that it's not a problem for her to lift it up and offer it to him. "Thanks for bringing food with you. You definitely need to make sure you eat."

"I have been. Been doing my best, anyway." Couldn't do better than his best. He sets the frame aside and perches on the side of her bed. "Just like you've been doing your best to rest, I'm sure."

"I've been on so many chems the last couple days I kind of don't want to move." She laughs. "But Maine and Orion have been taking really good care of me."

"Yeah. I'm sure they have." He draws a breath and reaches to tuck her hair behind her ear. He hates it, hates it, that she's gotten used to them taking care of her needs without him. "They'd hear about it from me if they hadn't been," he adds.

"You don't have to worry. Maine's always got my six." She's glad they're living with her, really. After all the stuff that happened during the riots, she definitely doesn't want to live alone now like she'd kind of been planning before.

It's kind of nice that North messes with her hair a little. He gets kind of fussy about that stuff, and it's cute. "York doing okay?"

He licks his lips and drops his hand from her ear. That's something else, the way she talks about Maine, knowing what Maine does to him in his future. She witnessed it in his dreamscape, but somehow that doesn't seem to make a difference. "Yeah, I mean, he's York," he answers. "You know, he always makes it through things, somehow."

Wrath looks at him curiously. Does he want to say something? But apparently not, he's just answering her question. She'll trust that if he's got a problem, he'll say it. "York's pretty awesome," she agrees. "I should take him to another gallery some time. He had a lot of fun at the last one."

He's working up to that, considering her honesty policy, but he actually doesn't know what good it'll do. She's become invested enough in a friendship with Maine that she invited him to live in her house.

"York likes anything like that as long as he can be social while he's at it," North says. "I bet that's what he liked the most about it."

"Maybe. But art can be really valuable as a shared experience, so I can dig that. It was a lot of fun to try to tell him about stuff." She smiles. "I've taken Delta to an art show too. I'll get everyone eventually!"

"That sounds really nice." He gestures a bit with his head toward the containers on the bedside table. "You want your food?"

"Oh, sure! But only if you eat too." He must need to eat more than she does.

"Of course." He hands her her container, then picks up his own. He hadn't felt like much and had just ordered a chicken sandwich. Since he's sort of sitting sideways to face her he balances the container on his knee and lifts his sandwich out to take a bite.

She opens up her own container. Chicken bits! Perfect.

She's starting to realize that something must be wrong. Maybe she should say something. But after the earlier argument, after what she told North, she's feeling grumpy enough that she's going to just wait until he speaks up. "You can bring over Duke some time to play, if you want," she offers.

"That'd be nice. And like I said, I could start staying over sometimes. Maybe I could work on fixing up that greenhouse for you, too."

"Oh, yeah, that could be really fun if you want to." At least to give it a try and see how that went. It's kind of a weird thought, since they haven't really spent the night much, and she has her other weird doubts that aren't necessarily his fault. "The conservatory is actually all done, you should see it. Delta had the workmen who built the guest room fix it. So it's ready to go once I can be out of bed. I can't wait to do some painting out there."

"I'm sure there's something I could do," he says, rubbing her knee. "I'd like to contribute." He helped her pick the place out, after all. "Do you have a chair to sit in out there yet?"

"You helped me find the house in the first place. You already contributed a lot." She pats his hand. "You don't have to worry so much."

But that's a good question. "Not a really good one yet."

"As soon as you're well enough to be up and around, we'll go shopping for one. A good easel and palette, too." He takes a bite of his food, then taps her side. "Can you scoot, or are you pretty well stuck in that arrangement?"

"I've actually got the painting stuff now. I've been shopping a lot on the network." She just... hadn't thought about the chair issue. She'd been hoping to stand, really. But sitting is better than nothing at all. And the easel she got is adjustable and can move the canvas around for her, so...

"I can't really move much without help," Wrath says, smiling wryly. "So if you want me to scoot, you're going to need to scoot me."

"As long as that's okay with you." He finishes his sandwich and stands so he can scoop his hands behind her back and under her knees. As long as she agrees that that's all right, anyway.

"Yeah, sure. There's more than enough room to share." Still feels weird to get moved around, whether it's by North or by Maine, but it's the way things are right now. It's kind of nice that North wants to be in that close; maybe it'll feel less awkward.

He lifts her, just enough to glide her along the bed, pushing her pillow over with his elbow while he's at it. Then he sets her down. "Feel all right?"

"Same as before," she says. "No worries." Which isn't all right. It's a lot of fucking pain. But as their argument earlier had established, she'd done this number to herself.

He rubs her shoulder. "Good." He turns to settle in next to her, but doesn't drape his arm over her shoulder, unsure how much pressure that would put on her back. "You lead here, okay? I don't want to hurt you."

She's quiet for a moment, then simply seeks out his hand, weaves their fingers together. Like they'd done a lot, when she was in the hospital. Things had seemed a lot less complicated then.

"I just want things to be okay," she says. And it feels like they aren't now, even if she doesn't know why. "We were really good friends, North, before we were anything else. So I want things to be okay, no matter what. I get confused, and I don't know what's going on or what you mean sometimes."

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